Platt Cline (Part 2)
Interviewed by Monte Poen
Camera by Wesley Lewis
1995
Sound File 140829
11:52 minutes
Cline: What was going here, somewhere in that really didn’t seem to quite fit. We had to have a modification of that plan and that’s what they did.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: Then, of course, during Hughes time we got a connection at Yuma and then all these things that they’re working on here today or here in this building.
Poen: Right.
Cline: These broadcasting classes and stuff.
Poen: Yes.
Cline: That started then. In other words, we really...
Poen: That really brings us to your second book then- The View from Mountain Campus, that covers the decade of the 1980s. So many changes- the elimination of the College of Education and the creation of the Center for Excellence in Education. As you mentioned the school for Restaurant Management...
Cline: Hotel and Restaurant.
Poen: Hotel and Restaurant Management- so many different changes under the Hughes presidency, not only physical but programmatic.
Cline: Well, we were keeping up and then some. You know, really. [looking through book]
Poen: Right. And, naturally, going hand in hand with that was the explosion of enrollment. I think we had about six thousand students when I came here in 1966. Today we have sixteen thousand students, I think?
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: With six thousand students in residence on campus.
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: So it’s a much different...it’s a much different institution then it was even during the Walkup years.
Cline: Yeah. And it’s different now.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: And we’re entering a new period.
Poen: Right.
Cline: And then you get right back to this thing that each one of these administrations has a little bit different role to perform.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: Depending on the persons qualities that does it.
Poen: Right.
Cline: But that’s where we...
Poen: And we’ve been blessed with excellent leadership, by and large.
Cline: When you look back, we’ve been more than fortunate.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: For instance, Tormey- at the right time. Gammage- at the right time.
Poen: Right.
Cline: Eastburn- at the right time. Walkup- at the right time. Hughes at the right time. Clara Lovett at the right time.
Poen: Uh-huh. Yes.
Cline: And it just seems that’s the way it is. Some things have changed, of course. And the community has changed. But the importance of the school has increased and it’s the biggest employer in town. And a big hunk of that staff is highly desirable- citizens, people who own homes.
Poen: Right.
Cline: And all that sort of thing. And an interesting thing that’s developed, slowly and surely, is the interest of other parts of Arizona in sending their kids up here to school. And more than half of the students at NAU today are from Maricopa County.
Poen: Is that right?
Cline: Yeah. (laughter)
Poen: Is that right?
Cline: They’d rather go to school up here.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: It’s the feel of the campus, the ambience.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: The smaller classes, probably.
Poen: Right.
Cline: Whenever possible. That sort of thing and it’s...and so that’s what’s happened.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: So...
Poen: And as we’re going into...or approaching the 21st century, we have this new technology that we’re using today. And NAU has taken on the responsibility to serve rural Arizona.
Cline: The Regents gave them, really gave them the authority to do it.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: And they’re doing it.
Poen: Yes. The network is expanding.
Cline: And that’s the future.
Poen: That’s the future.
Cline: Yeah. So, I wonder what somebody like Taylor or Blome back there would think if they took a look at this thing. They’d say, "God, let me out of here." (laughter) It’s too complicated.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: You know what happened up until Walkup’s time and during his time the Presidents had to live on the campus.
Poen: Mmm.
Cline: And Walkup was the first one of them...well they built a home for him and that’s part of that Hotel, Restaurant Management thing. But the earlier Presidents up to McMullen lived in the dorm with their families.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: Papa.
Poen: Papa.
Cline: After eight o’clock get off the sidewalks and get in your room. You know. That’s the way it was.
Poen: And they ate in the dining hall with the students?
Cline: That’s right.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: So was papa. And that feeling still persists- up until the Walkups. McMullen got an old house a good house, that stood there... where they moved it out to make room for what became the Blome Building.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: The Training School building.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: And he moved it over, back of Old Main and that’s where he built his fireplaces and did all that stuff.
Poen: I see.
Cline: And then all of the Presidents lived there including Walkup.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: And early in his term when these changes were taking place, Gene Hughes took a bedroll and went over and spent a night there before they tore it down.
Poen: Yeah. Yes.
Cline: Yeah. I remember him talking about it. So it’s a different place and I just...so far they’ve responded to the challenges very, very well and I just think we’re going to see all kinds of interesting things happening in the next few years.
Poen: Well, I certainly want to thank you Platt for writing such an excellent history of this institution. You know, usually institutional histories are somewhat dry and I’ve seen a few as dry as sawdust but these books of yours make people come alive. They emphasize the leadership, the struggles, the hopes, the dreams, the setbacks. It’s a lively, vivid depiction of almost a hundred years of this institution.
Cline: Well, I feel good about it and I appreciate your remarks. Coming from you it makes them...it puts a few little gold stars on the banner. But the thing is, it takes time to do it. And who would have time on a campus to do one of these things? Well, not very many. There are a few scattered around. I think rather typical is what they call a history. At least they did till a few years ago down at Tempe was really a volume that came out to help commemorate Gammage’s retirement- so mostly the book was about Gammage this time.
Poen: I see.
Cline: And I don’t think the other school, well neither one of them really has any histories, I mean a real history.
Poen: Hmm. Yeah.
Cline: But there are schools around over the country that do.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: Quite often, in cases I’ve seen, somebody will get a number of graduate students and put them to work on different chapters dealing with the place. That’s a way to do it.
Poen: Oh, sure.
Cline: Just show them how to research.
Poen: Absolutely.
Cline: And teach them how to write. So that’s good. But anyway, this to me was something I wanted to do. Whatever it’s achieved as far as success is concerned for any of these books- all of it goes for, well, in effect, goes for scholarships or campus programs. That’s what it’s for.
Poen: That’s a magnificent contribution.
Cline: So we have a nice program for the library and we have a nursing program- it’s the oldest one we’ve got. And it dates way back. Barbara went to school there, my wife- and a couple of others. Then we have something that we think is important and that seems to be accepted is our humanities lectures that we have each Fall.
Poen: Wonderful, wonderful series.
Cline: We get some big ones.
Poen: I know you do. You just had Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and I understand you’re hoping to get Sandra Day O’Connor.
Cline: She’s given us a tentative nod.
Poen: Has she?
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: Tom Cleman has really done a job. He works at it and he carries on correspondence with all these people.
Poen: I know you’ve been involved in helping the library expand its Special Collections.
Cline: Well...
Poen: The library which is named after you and your wife Barbara, by the way. [laughter] The Cline Library.
Cline: Well, I’ve always had a feeling about libraries and wherever I’ve been, Colorado U. or New Mexico Military Institute or wherever in our little country towns, I’m down there getting acquainted with the library.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: Because I love books.
Poen: But what we do, and Barbara and I both read all the time, once or twice a year we haul a big load of them to the city library and to the campus library- depending on the sort of thing it is that they need. We brought up some old, old things...I had a itty bitty tear a couple of weeks ago when they hauled away a set of books my parents got when I was four years old called, The Boys and Girls Bookshelf. The Book of Knowledge. The Book of Knowledge- it started in England, Grolier Society and it was the greatest set of books for kids that ever was. And we didn’t know. We just thought, "This is fun." And our folks encouraged us to read.
Poen: Uh-huh.
Cline: And so we devoured those books. And they didn’t write down and they didn’t write baby talk. They wrote in simple, good English and no book dealt only with this or only with that. Each one you could take and spend several weeks in the summer. For instance, there would be fairy stories, history, exploration, what have you. So...
Poen: And you donated those...
Cline: My [unclear from tape] said that it had to be taken care of. So a couple of weeks ago it came up here. I’ve seen them ever since. Well, for almost eight years.
Poen: And now they’re in our library.
Cline: Yeah. They’re over there now. And then another one we put over there that same time is one I’d kept for years with the idea that it would go up there sometime and that’s the famous eleventh edition of The Britannica.
Poen: Hmm.
Cline: That’s the essay one and they’re in perfect shape.
Poen: Great.
Cline: 1912, 1914. And of course, they have a modern one. But here’s the old one.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: So, books are important.
Poen: Sure.
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: They are. And history written properly is very important, too. And I...
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: And I thank you again for spending this time with me.
Cline: Well, you’re most kind and generous and I do appreciate it. And you probably noticed. I don’t seem to have any difficulty in yakking about history. [laughter] I go all over the place. I just love history, you know.
Poen: Well, sure.
Cline: And I always have.
Poen: Yeah.
Cline: Yeah.
Poen: Well, thank you.
Cline: Thank you so very much. It’s very, very nice of you. Very kind.
